Why did God create if he knew some people would go to hell?

[catholic1seeks]

I have a very difficult time understanding why God would create us if he knew that, by doing so, some persons would end up in hell. Why wouldn’t their suffering prevent him from creating?

You may say that we can hope no person goes to hell. We can certainly hope so; however, we do know that their are some in hell: the fallen angels.

++Trying to grow in faith and understanding++

c1seeks

 

[catholictiger]

I have a very difficult time understanding why God would create us if he knew that, by doing so, some persons would end up in hell. Why wouldn’t their suffering prevent him from creating?

You may say that we can hope no person goes to hell. We can certainly hope so; however, we do know that their are some in hell: the fallen angels.

++Trying to grow in faith and understanding++

c1seeks

this is a difficult question to answer but I think it could go with free will, God doesn’t send anyone to hell he creates all of us to be with him in eternity, but because of free will, I think one of God’s greatest gift to us, some of us reject his call and our desire for us to be with him in eternity. If we were all to be with him in Heaven our free will wold no longer exist and he would not be loving us fully. So in order for him to fully love us and give us free will some of us will go to hell.

Its kidna a hard concept to rap your head around, I don’t know if this is the best answer so hopefully someone else can answer for me.

 

[estesbob]

I have a very difficult time understanding why God would create us if he knew that, by doing so, some persons would end up in hell. Why wouldn’t their suffering prevent him from creating?

You may say that we can hope no person goes to hell. We can certainly hope so; however, we do know that their are some in hell: the fallen angels.

++Trying to grow in faith and understanding++

c1seeks

There is no one in hell that did not choose to be there. As CS Lewis said. "the gates of hell are locked on the inside. "

 

[catholic1seeks]

There is no one in hell that did not choose to be there. As CS Lewis said. "the gates of hell are locked on the inside. "

I understand this answer.
But, it’s just, these people who choose hell will suffer forever.
I don’t understand how God would let this happen, even if some are saved. Even if most go to Heaven.

Also, (and I may start a new thread for this topic), is not sin acting out in ignorance? After all, if we knew that sin was going to harm us, we wouldn’t really choose it.

 

[estesbob]

I understand this answer.
But, it’s just, these people who choose hell will suffer forever.
I don’t understand how God would let this happen, even if some are saved. Even if most go to Heaven.

Also, (and I may start a new thread for this topic), is not sin acting out in ignorance? After all, if we knew that sin was going to harm us, we wouldn’t really choose it.

He didnt let it happen. They did it to themsleves. Should we be denied eternal happiness because some decide to turn it down?

 

[catholictiger]

I understand this answer.
But, it’s just, these people who choose hell will suffer forever.
I don’t understand how God would let this happen, even if some are saved. Even if most go to Heaven.

Also, (and I may start a new thread for this topic), is not sin acting out in ignorance? After all, if we knew that sin was going to harm us, we wouldn’t really choose it.

the first part the simple answer is free will, its a great sign of love to give someone free will, knowing that they could not want to come back to you.

on your second one, I would say no, I had a physics teacher in high school who knew that smoking was bad knew smoking kills but she still smoked. Its the same thing with Sin, we know it hurts us but we can’t rest the temptation sometimes.

 

[catholic1seeks]

He didnt let it happen. They did it to themsleves. Should we be denied eternal happiness because some decide to turn it down?

Well, he does let it happen… In the strict sense, He doesn’t make it happen. But he lets it.

I understand the free will coponent. But it really is bigger than that: creation. Why create…

 

[catholictiger]

Well, he does let it happen… In the strict sense, He doesn’t make it happen. But he lets it.

I understand the free will coponent. But it really is bigger than that: creation. Why create…

i don’t know if I can address this one, but you must also remember that some do come into heaven so people will be in with communion with him.

But I really don’t know how to address this.

 

[catholic1seeks]

we know it hurts us but we can’t rest the temptation sometimes.

Then shouldn’t the temptation be taken into account?
How can we truly and freely choose hell…
C.S. Lewis said we can get God off the hook, but we can’t get us off the hook: we must be insane to choose hell. However, that’s the point. Unless someone thinks to himself honestly and says “I choose hell,” how can anything else cause someone to go to hell? This is where I have trouble with understanding the nature of mortal sin, among other things. How can doing a certain action send us to hell, if we may not be willfully choosing hell?

 

[catholictiger]

Then shouldn’t the temptation be taken into account?
How can we truly and freely choose hell…
C.S. Lewis said we can get God off the hook, but we can’t get us off the hook: we must be insane to choose hell. However, that’s the point. Unless someone thinks to himself honestly and says “I choose hell,” how can anything else cause someone to go to hell? This is where I have trouble with understanding the nature of mortal sin, among other things. How can doing a certain action send us to hell, if we may not be willfully choosing hell?

i don’t think its a I choose hell, but their rejection of God is choosing hell. You probably wouldn’t know that you choose hell when you did. Its kinda like you are driving recklessly and it leads to your death. You could say this person choose to die today. But when you were driving you were not thinking I’m about to die, your thinking I’m having a lot of fun.

 

[Crumpy]

Part of the answer has to be wrapped up in the fact that people are made in the image and likeness of God. We have tremendous dignity and potential, to start off with.

Part of it has to do with how much we make God suffer when we sin. I elaborated my idea on this in some other thread. We see the suffering in the passion of Jesus. That’s what sin does to God. If you try to summarize the “Christ event” you’d have to include how God shows how much sin makes Him suffer.

Maybe these are all the same fundamental thing, but just from different points of view. We’d have to remind ourselves that God has made a final covenant with us in the blood of Jesus Christ. A covenant is a life-changing event, and so it should in our lives.

Marriage, by the way, is the highest form of human covenant we share that comes closest to showing us the covenant we share with God. That’s why s/s marriage is wrong, too. It’s not just about people and their “preferences” but it’s about God and how we relate to Him, too.

 

[sw85]

I have a very difficult time understanding why God would create us if he knew that, by doing so, some persons would end up in hell. Why wouldn’t their suffering prevent him from creating?

You may say that we can hope no person goes to hell. We can certainly hope so; however, we do know that their are some in hell: the fallen angels.

++Trying to grow in faith and understanding++

c1seeks

The purpose of existence is not to minimize pain and maximize pleasure; God is not a utilitarian.

He endowed man with free will that man might freely love Him. Free will is meaningless if God arbitrarily throttles at birth all those who would rebel against him.

 

[Paul_Infirdigno]

as one of these posters said its not so much that we choose eternal torment, but that we choose to deny GOD. For example that proffesor who smoked and knew it killed he wanted the good feeling of smoking rather then health, Just like a soul, it like the temporal pleasure (sin) rather then Spirirtual Health and ever lasting Happyness.

GOD created because He Loved,Loves,will Love. thats the simple answer.
GOD wants everyone in heaven, but He knew people would end up in hell, lets say you go to Heaven, and lets say your next door neighbor goes to Hell, should he deny your Everlasting happyness just because your neighbor was being stupid?

Why create? Because Love.

Mortal sin is basically this-
You choose sin even though it goes against GOD and you can go to hell. Full consent, Full knowledge . Full gravity of sin.

why would any body choose hell?

well i think thats what we should ask our selves

 

[stevekehl]

I understand this answer.
But, it’s just, these people who choose hell will suffer forever.
I don’t understand how God would let this happen, even if some are saved. Even if most go to Heaven.

To answer your first question, I agree with the above posts. We can only love God if it is done freely with the option of not loving and obeying Him. The suffering in hell is caused by the people in hell. Imagine a place where the restraining hand of conscience and morality is removed, throw in angry demons to stir the pot and what a mess. People in hell have decided they don’t want God’s presence in their lives, God simply obliges them.

 

[dcrowmik]

I have a very difficult time understanding why God would create us if he knew that, by doing so, some persons would end up in hell. Why wouldn’t their suffering prevent him from creating?

To try to begin to answer this question, look inwardly to yourself and ask yourself why you would create a child with your spouse knowing full well the child will do some things against you in their life.

As we are created in God’s image and likeness you can start your musings and meditations on yourself and your very nature and go from there.

 

[ddarko]

I have a very difficult time understanding why God would create us if he knew that, by doing so, some persons would end up in hell. Why wouldn’t their suffering prevent him from creating?

You may say that we can hope no person goes to hell. We can certainly hope so; however, we do know that their are some in hell: the fallen angels.

++Trying to grow in faith and understanding++

c1seeks

I think the short answer is, it is always GOOD to exist than not exist. You can also see it as, it is always GOOD to bring in to existence. Lets say you have a fictional person in your mind. How can you love that person if he/she is not real? So in order to LOVE they must be brought in to existence. By doing so, they can feel your love for them.

Now God sees all persons that he can create. It would be very wrong of him if he didn’t create the persons who would not love him back i.e. the ones who choose hell. Then one could argue that God is more interested in getting people to LOVE HIM than LOVING them. But God is perfectly GOOD → therefore he can’t be like that.

Now since, God loves everyone, even those who would go to hell, he wishes GOOD for all of them. Since it is GOOD to exist, God creates even the person’s who would go to hell because of his LOVE (remember, to LOVE is to will the good of another) for them.

Now the fact that these created people reject God FREELY when he would do everything to give them what is GOOD is the sole reason they end up in hell.

It’s like a father who loves his Son very much and tries to convince him, put him to a good School, etc and try to get him to be a good person. It is not the father’s fault if the son rejects everything and decides to go his own way. The father can only keep reminding him and sending him others to convince him to change. In the end, the son has to freely choose. If not, he will end up in ruin.

So its not that the father ever did not LOVE him. Even in his path to hell/ruin the son had the chance to feel LOVE which he would never have felt if he did not exist. In his entire existence, God has only LOVED him and he has been the one who has turned his back on God.

God Bless

 

[fred_conty]

Hi,
Why did God create if he knew some people would go to hell?
Everyone so far has said why man sins, not God’s reason for creating us when He knew
some would go to Hell.

So far we have only said why we send ourselves to hell.

Or the question could be rephrased:
Why didn’t God insure that everyone go to heaven, freewill being moved allways toward good.

The answer is ,He did. Adam had it all.
It was easier for Adam not to sin than to sin since he had no effects of sin to cope with.
So God did set it up for a win win situation.

But this too begs the question. God still knew in advance some would go to hell.

I think we have to know the mind of God. And did He tell us? No.
Sometimes we just plain don’t know the answer.

 

[catholic1seeks]

To try to begin to answer this question, look inwardly to yourself and ask yourself why you would create a child with your spouse knowing full well the child will do some things against you in their life.

As we are created in God’s image and likeness you can start your musings and meditations on yourself and your very nature and go from there.

*A child doing things against me is one thing, but allowing them to suffer is another.

 

[catholic1seeks]

I think the short answer is, it is always GOOD to exist than not exist. You can also see it as, it is always GOOD to bring in to existence. Lets say you have a fictional person in your mind. How can you love that person if he/she is not real? So in order to LOVE they must be brought in to existence. By doing so, they can feel your love for them.

This is good to chew on.
Thanks ;D

 

[Earnest_Bunbury]

To delve a little deeper into this, Thomism states that God moves us to the good. He does this with our free consent in and through our nature. Our ultimate happiness is God and all our powers, our innate and elicited appetites, and our innate and elicited desires are oriented to this both naturally and with grace supernaturally.

We are made for God and it is in our pride and arrogance that we reject His movements that lead to Him. We can sin all through our life and still, with grace, be converted at the last second. It takes work to deny God throughout our life and at the hour of our death. It is not natural for us to do this and as many have said, those who chose hell have chosen this, not just once or twice, but constantly, deeply, and contrary to our created nature.

Existence is given to us to share in God’s Existence and everything else that finds its source in God which is our eternal beatitude.